President Obama gave credit to Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday for making climate change a national security priority at the White House, saying the issue is now discussed in the White House’s Situation Room.
“He has elevated the profile of climate change, ocean protection to the point where we have conversations about this not just in the Oval Office, but in the Situation Room,” Obama said. The Situation Room is where the White House convenes with generals and national security advisers to address serious security matters facing the United States.
Obama made the remarks in addressing the third annual Our Ocean Conference being held Thursday in Washington. He used the conference to announce the creation of the first marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
“I am obviously grateful to John Kerry for a whole host of reasons,” he said. “But one thing that we all owe to John is his conviction that a healthier ocean and a healthier planet are about more than just our environment; they are also vital to our foreign policy and to our national security,” Obama said. “And that is critical in helping us mobilize all of government around the issues that all of you care so deeply about.”
Republican critics and nominee Donald Trump often criticize the administration’s focus on climate change as a threat to national security. Kerry has said climate change is as grave a threat to national security as the threat of international terrorism and the Islamic State.
